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Alright, Esther chapter number two. Let's dig right in tonight. Did you take care of that already? Alright, thank you. Esther chapter two. Obviously, we just read the entire chapter. We're going to start reading again in verse number one. The Bible reads, after these things, the wrath of King Ahasuerus was appeased. He remembered Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed against her. So you remember in chapter number one, just a brief recap, we saw the luxury and the decadence of the kingdom here and Shushan the palace and he throws this six-month long party and then he has another week-long party and, you know, he calls for Vashti to come before him and she doesn't come. So it makes him really angry and he consults with his top leaders and they basically say that there needs to be a decree and Vashti is no longer going to be queen. She's going to be put away and they're going to find a new queen and so when we start off this chapter, you know, basically he's saying he's finally settling down from being angry about that because it made him really angry that she disobeyed him and disobeyed him publicly and, you know, it's kind of a big deal. And then he remembers what was decreed was that, let's read verse number two, the Bible says, then said the king's servants that ministered unto him, let there be fair young virgins sought for the king. So what they're going to, what they're doing is they're going out and finding virgins throughout the whole, you know, throughout the kingdom to bring to be a possible choice to be the new queen of the land. So this is an opportunity, you know, for a lot of people I'm sure in their eyes, especially, you know, to be taken care of, to live in the palace and, you know, have everything provided for them. Verse number three says, and let the king appoint officers and all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace to the house of the women unto the custody of Hege the king's chamberlain, keeper of the women, and let their things for purification be given them and let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti and the thing pleased the king and he did so. So we don't get a lot of information here on how voluntary this is. I don't know. I mean it's hard to say. You could obviously see why there would be a good reason for there not to necessarily force women to come to the king because they're going to be taken into, you know, into the king's palace and be provided for. Like I said, you know, that could very well be a great opportunity for many people, but it's just simply unclear, you know. I can't say one way or the other if people were kind of forced into this or not. They very well could have been, right. It could have just been, well, this is a decree so they're going to go round up and kind of choose the best and be like, okay, you're coming with me. So what I was saying last week, just to reiterate, because I taught on, you know, the wickedness of Vashti and her rebellion to the king was completely wrong and we proved that from scripture on God's roles for husbands and wives and the wife is supposed to be in obedience and in submission to her husband, but the way that, you know, Ahasuerus is dealing with this isn't, you know, his solution isn't the best thing to do, right, because what he's doing now is he's bringing all these virgins in and as we're going to see, we'll get into it a little bit later, you know, he ends up just, you know, committing fornication with these virgins that he's, you know, bringing unto the palace. It'd be one thing if he's just, you know, maybe trying to find a nice woman to marry by dating them or something, whatever, right, doing things appropriately, but as we'll see in a little bit when they go to the house of the concubines, we're going to kind of go through what a concubine is and stuff, that they end up not really being, you know, this whole practice is just messed up, okay, and by no means is King Ahasuerus just some, you know, role model of some godly Christian man, okay, so we have to look at these stories and you can't just say, oh well because he's wicked we can't learn anything about this, obviously there's great truths that we could still learn and there's still representations that could be made and like in chapter one, you know, he was the king, you can, you know, kind of see some truths in there if he's representing God or if he's representing just, you know, a husband, you know, there's a lot of ways that you can gain truths from these stories even without him being, you know, even doing everything right, but that's why we take stories and we understand all the truths based on still other clear statements in scripture and the clear statements, you know, what's going on here isn't right, this isn't what, you know, what they're supposed to be doing as we get into this, so but this is what they're doing, this is the story saying, you know, they're bringing all these virgins into them, these women to come to the palace and they come to the house of the women, so he's got this whole place set up for these women to stay in and he's got someone who's in charge of the house and just making sure these women have everything that they need and they're going to be kept there until they're called unto the king and he's going to spend some time with them and determine is this someone that I want to be the next queen, is this someone that's going to take the place of Vashti, so that's the plan here and it says in verse number five, now in Shushan, the palace, there was a certain Jew whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamin, of course Mordecai is a key player in the book of Esther, he's mentioned in a couple other books, Ezra and Nehemiah, his name comes up, he's a very pivotal person, not even just in this story, but I think overall with the Israelites during this time period, that he's a solid person, a solid leader, he's someone that doesn't back down, he's someone that takes his faith seriously, he's a man of integrity, and we'll see more of the good attributes, the good godly attributes of Mordecai as we go through this story and Esther also has a lot of great godly quality attributes that we're going to see as we go through this as well. The Bible continues here, verse number six, who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, who Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon carried away, and he brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful, who Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. So we find out here that Esther, whose real name is Hadassah, but you know a lot of people have multiple names in scripture, is Mordecai's cousin, because this is his uncle's daughter. So, but obviously, you know, there's people could span a lot of rages, and sometimes you have cousins that it's more like, he might, Mordecai probably in age would be more like an uncle to Esther than a cousin, but when you have a lot of time gaps between children and what have you, that's what happens. I know my wife has a cousin who kind of is a lot older, and they just, they seem, it seems like that should be an uncle or an aunt, but it's really a cousin. That's the relation here, and obviously during the captivity, I'm sure a lot of people died. There was, you know, all kinds of things going on. Her parents died, so she's adopted by her cousin Mordecai, and he takes her for his own daughter. Verse number eight says, so it came to pass when the king's commandment, his decree was heard, and when many maidens were gathered together under Shushan, the palace, to the custody of Hegai, that Esther was brought also under the king's house to the custody of Hegai, keeper of the women, and the maiden pleased him, and she obtained kindness of him, and he speedily gave her her things for purification with such things as belonged to her, and seven maidens, which were meet to be given her, out of the king's house, and he preferred her and her maids unto the best place of the house of the women. So as soon as Esther shows up, you know, and we're going to see, I see a lot of similarities between Esther and Joseph. Esther is very blessed by God, and protected by God, and just has a lot of things happening that kind of go her way regardless of the situation that she's in. Just like Joseph was being blessed by God, even when he's cast into prison, you know, he kind of rises to be like, like running the prison even while he's in prison. He gains favor with a lot of people. Everyone that he's under, he's gaining favor with, and kind of climbing ranks, and we see the same thing happening with Esther, that as soon as she's brought, you know, and you know, whether we assume that she came here by choice or was not there by choice, I would assume that she probably wasn't there by choice, but you know, again, we don't know that, but when she shows up, you know, she's given, right away, she just receives favor. She's given seven maidens for her, you know, for her benefit while she's staying at the palace, and then this keeper of the women is already kind of giving her, promoting her in one of the best places to stay. So she's already getting some preferential treatment, and it's not obvious why this happens. It's just, in my opinion, it's a blessing from God, and I think what we're going to see also is that she, because of the godly traits that she exhibits, that's another reason why she's being blessed in the situation that she's in, and as we're going to find out later, you know, God has a plan and she gets put into a position for a particular reason, and this is a great, and we'll go into that more when we go later in the book, but you never know what life is going to bring you. We never know what God has planned for you until sometimes very much later in life, so we need to make the best of whatever situation we're in at the moment, and if she's here outside of her will, she's taken because it's the king's commandment and she needs to be brought there, you know, that could be a real sad, you know, event, right? I mean, that'd be horrible for someone to have to go through that and could be very depressing and could get you down, but we need to be able to, you know, whatever situation you're in, try to do what's right all the way through and make the best out of it, and you never know how things might end up, and this is one of those great stories that kind of demonstrates that, and Esther, you know, even from the beginning, having her parents killed, her parents were dead, you know, we don't know exactly how they died, but you know, her parents died when she was younger, so she's raised by her cousin, and already doesn't have the best start in life being, you know, not having parents, but Mordecai, as we'll see, also is someone who is taking very good care of her, and he's coming to the core of the gate every single day, checking up on her, making sure everything's okay, so she's got at least that godly influence in her life, and I think one of the things you can see from this as well is that, you know, whatever your situation is, you know, even if you have a really bad start, a really bad upbringing, bad home life, no parents, you're adopted, whatever, that God can use you to do great things regardless of your background, right, regardless of your of your genealogy, regardless of your parents, regardless of other outside influences in your life, whatever condition you may be, you know, bond or free, God can use you to do great things, and this is, this, hopefully, this whole, this whole book is a very encouraging book. Let's keep reading here, verse number 10. Esther had not showed her people nor her kindred, for Mordecai had charged her that she should not show it, and Mordecai walked every day before the court of the women's house to know how Esther did and what she'd become of her, so he's real concerned with her. Verse number 12. Now when every maid's turn was come to go in the king Ahasuerus, after that she had been 12 months according to the manner of the women, for so were the days of their purifications accomplished to wit six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet odors and with other things for the purifying of the women. So here we're seeing too, you know, they have this whole purifying process takes a year for women to be purified, which there is purification in the scripture, right, for women when they're unclean, but it doesn't take a year, right? There's cleansing and cleaning and hygiene and things that are done, that women will do to be clean, but it doesn't take a whole year, so this is kind of an odd thing, and to be honest with you, I don't know what the underlying meaning is for this if there is one, but that's what they're doing. So they're spending a whole year before their turn comes up to spend with Ahasuerus and for him, you know, trying to find a wife. Verse number 13 says, then thus came every maiden unto the king, whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house. So when it's the next woman's turn to go unto the king, basically they're saying, okay, whatever it is that you want to bring with you, you know, maybe someone wants to try to do something unique and kind of bring some extra gift or bring, you know, whatever, because they're trying to win the favor of the king to be the queen, right? That's kind of the goal there, that they're allowing these women to have something to bring with them to bring to the king's house, and they give it to her. Verse 14 says, in the evening she went and on the morrow she returned into the second house of the women to the custody of Sheyashgaz, the king's chamberlain, which kept the concubines. She came in unto the king no more except the king delighted in her and that she were called by name. So this is where I'm talking about, you know, basically these women are being defiled because they're going in in the evening and then they're leaving in the morning and now they're no longer allowed to return unto the house of the women that they were at, and now they're being segregated and going into another house where, okay, you've transitioned now to be among the concubines. And the concubines, you know, the definition, I got this definition off dictionary.com, there's, you know, basically three different definitions, and they line up with what the Bible teaches about concubines. The first definition is a woman who cohabits with a man to whom she is not legally married, especially one regarded as socially or sexually subservient, a mistress. Another definition is a secondary wife, usually of inferior rank, and another definition is a woman residing in a harem and kept as by a sultan for sexual purposes. So basically what we get from this and what we can see in the Bible is that a concubine is like a second class wife. Now, they may or may not be legally married, so the reason why they're second class could maybe have a few different meanings, so either there's no formal marriage, they're just kind of taken to be, to act as a wife to someone but they're not really a wife, or maybe they're a bond servant that's taken to kind of be their wife. So that's, those are some usages of the word concubine, but people still view them like their wives, but again, it's this lower class, it's kind of the live-in girlfriend that for all intensive purposes would be considered a wife, but technically they're not married, so the Bible will call that a concubine. And what happens with these women, because they laid with him, they're not pure anymore, but they're kind of, they belong to him, but they're not his wife. He's not choosing them to be the queen, but he's keeping them around in case he wants to see them again, and they're just staying at the palace. So this is not the best view of Ahasuerus. This is a wicked thing to just have all this stuff, and look, you can say, well, you know, what about these other kings? What about King Solomon? Yeah, that was wicked and wrong for him, too. I mean, he had, what, 300 wives and 700 concubines? Like, that was horrible. That was wicked. That's not right. That's not right. No, you know, he was a godly person, but had that really bad sin, and you know what? That sin caused his heart to be turned from the Lord. The Bible says that a king is not supposed to multiply wives unto himself. The Bible says that, you know, God created man and woman for this cause, so a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. They too should be one flesh. So God didn't plan, and it's not God's will, that a man would just have a bunch of different women as, you know, maybe some could be their wives, and some as their girlfriends or concubines. That's not right at all. That's not right at all, and when we look at, we're not going to go back there, but last week we read through Ephesians chapter 5, and we're more focused on the authority of the man. Well, what about all the responsibilities that a man has to his wife, right? To have this undying love for his wife. Well, how can you have an undying love for your wife when you've got 300 girlfriends or 700 girlfriends or, you know, like, like you can't do it. It's not going to work. You're not going to be able to fulfill all of those duties to all of those people. It just doesn't work, right? So this is completely wicked and wrong, and I've got a reference here for Judges 19. You don't have to turn there, but basically in Judges 19, we all know the story. It's a real, really bad story with the, where the man's traveling, and he stops in the city of Benjamin, and they, you know, are banging on the door, and they end up, they're trying to, these sodomites are trying to get the man, but then, the woman goes out to him, and they abuse her all night, and then they kill her, right? But in that story, it calls her a concubine, but then it also says, you know, I'll just read this for you. Genesis, or Judges 19.1 says, and it came to pass in those days when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite, sojuring on the side of Mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah. So he takes this concubine, and his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house. Bethlehem Judah was there four whole months. Verse three says, and her husband arose, and went after her, right? So, they may not legally or technically be married, but the Bible's still talking to them about being husband and wife, right? Still referring to that relationship as being her, him being her husband, and then in verse number four, it even says, and his father-in-law, the damsel's father, retained him. So we can see that, you know, a concubine, depending on the context, I think what I've seen, and what I've seen in context is, it's kind of a loose term that could be applied in multiple scenarios, but it's always a degrading term. It's always something that's not positive at all. You don't want to be referred to as a concubine ever. So whether they're actually married or not, there's always circumstances revolving around it that make it not a good place to be in. So these women that are brought under the king, you know, he's bringing all these virgins, he's using them for a night, trying to find his queen, and then they just are kept in the concubine house. So that's what's going on in the story here. Now, verse 15, we get to Esther's turn. It says, the Bible reads, now when the turn of Esther, the daughter of Abbahel, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her for his daughter, was come to go in unto the king, she required nothing but what he got at king's chamberlain, the keeper of the women appointed, and Esther obtained favor in the sight of all them that looked upon her. And the few things that we're going to see as attributes of Esther is that, one, she has a meek and quiet spirit, which the Bible says is an ornament of God of great price. There's a great value to have the meek and quiet spirit. She is obedient. She is, you know, she's even obedient in the Mordecai when he's charging her not to tell her people and what to do. She's being real submissive to him as a parental authority in her life. And then with everything that she's doing here, she's obtaining favor, God's blessing and we see here also that she doesn't require anything. So she's not asking for anything extra or special to go in to the king. She's just going to go in as herself and not trying to use anything else to persuade the king at all. And I think this is something that's also appealing that she's probably different than a lot of the other women that are going in there. And she obtains his favor in the sight of all them that looked on her. Verse 16, the Bible reads, so Esther was taken on the king of Hezuares into his house royal in the tenth month, which is the month Tibeth in the seventh year of his reign. And it's interesting that even brings this up, but if we go back to chapter 1 and verse 3, the Bible says in the third year of his reign, he made a feast on all the princes. So that party that he threw was in the third year of his reign when Vashti refused to come. This is already the seventh year now, so four years have passed by the time Esther's going in under the king. And he hasn't found a queen yet in four years. Even if he waited a whole year, because remember the purifying takes a year, I mean that's still, you've got two or three years going on there where it's like, and we don't know if it's every single day or whatever, right? But however frequently, that's still a lot of people to be seeing and going through and not making your choice, as it were, in finding a queen. That was kind of interesting. Let's keep reading. Verse number 17, the Bible says, and the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Now obviously he chooses Esther, she's the one that he chooses to be queen, but one of the things that we've, about three times already in this chapter, it says that Esther obtained favor, right? She's getting, you know, obtained favor of Hege, she's getting in the best place of the pal, of the place of the women, you know, everyone that looks upon her, she's obtaining favor, and she's obtaining favor in the sight of the king as well. And this verse says grace and favor, and I think we could use that and see that she's basically just being given a lot of grace from everyone, so she's someone who's on the receiving end of grace. And the reason why I bring up that point is because I think that there's a greater picture, there's more symbolic references going on here with Esther being chosen to be the queen as the replacement for Vashti. Vashti was the stubborn, stiff-neck, rebellious queen, right? She was married unto the king, but she was put away, and now we have a new woman who has the godly attributes, has the right attributes, that has the right spirit who's coming in now, and is given a lot of grace, and that becomes the new bride. And I think that this is a picture of Israel being, you know, the first bride, the first nation chosen by God to be His people, to be that people that's, you know, on the receiving end of His grace, and that He's using, and that's joined, in a sense, as a wife, you know, as His bride to the Lord, and how they ultimately become stiff-necked, rebellious, they turn their back on God, right? And this is during a time when they're being judged, and they've been put away, in a sense, from God because they were taken captive, right? So they'd already turned their back on God and showing that there's going to be a new wife to be selected, which in Scripture we find out ends up being, you know, the nation that's going to bring forth the fruit of it. If you would turn to Matthew chapter 21, we'll see that reference there. Now Esther was a Jew, obviously, and I think that that represents the inward Jew, the child of promise, bringing forth godliness as a wife with a meek and quiet and humble spirit. We see the humility not needing anything, not wanting anything, but still continuing to receive grace, and she was better than Vashti, so she replaces Vashti. Because remember the King's commandment in chapter one was he was going to find someone better than her. Matthew 21 verse number 42, the Bible reads, Jesus saith unto them, did you never read in the Scriptures the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Now what we're seeing in Esther chapter two is not the reason why I believe in replacement theology. It's not the reason why I believe that Israel is replaced with a nation breaking forth. I just think it's a picture of it, right? So I'm never going to go to Esther chapter two to prove this doctrine, but I'm going to go through some verses tonight briefly, not completely in depth, to prove that this is true from more clear scriptures like we just saw in Matthew 21 where Jesus is saying, hey, the kingdom of God is taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. So he's referring to a nation. He's referring to the nation of Israel specifically because that's who he's talking about. That's who he's talking to. He's saying, you know what? You are going to be having this taken from you. You are the children of promise and everything else, but you basically lost that, and now God is going to find a new wife, as it were, right? A new queen to bestow his grace on and to use for his kingdom. Turn a few into Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, we could go through all of Romans 11. I'm not going to do that because it's more of a Bible study through Esther than it is through Romans, but this is kind of the main theme and the main takeaway that I get from Esther chapter two is the symbolic reference of Vashti being put away and being replaced by Esther. Romans chapter 11 verse number one, it's again very clear here what God is doing with the physical seed of Abraham, with the physical children of Israel, how he's going to replace them as a people of God, as his people. Verse number one says, I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. What ye not what the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession of God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. Now, before we continue, I say, Pastor, what are you talking about? I thought you just said that this is talking about them being replaced. It is, but what this is doing, it's clarifying and making sure that we know, because obviously in the story, it's one person, right? You've got one person just being replaced. So one person is physically representing an entire nation. So you can't have part of a person being replaced, because it won't fit, it doesn't work in the story. But when it comes to the whole nation, when you deal with as a whole, yeah, they're being put away. But there's obviously always a remnant, because the whole is made up of individuals. So of course, it's not like every single physical Jew is just being, you know, is just being cast away. Like, they can't be saved, or whatever. God did not cast away his people completely, because he's even saying, look, I'm a Jew, right? I believe. There's other believers, there's always a remnant. And even when it seems like there's nobody, the Bible says in verse four, But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. So he's saying, of course, there's still a remnant, but as a whole, they've been put away. And the story here is representative of the whole. So, and he says here, how is it that there's even this remnant left? It says by the election of grace. Great, what do we have to do to be saved? It's by grace. For by grace are you saved through faith. That's why any physical Jews are saved is because they believe. But like the Bible says, when Jesus came on his own, his own received him not. It wasn't saying every single one person, individual, completely rejected him, but as a whole, they did. As a whole, the people of Israel rejected him. Verse number six, and if by grace, then is it no more of works? Otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace? Otherwise work is no more work. And again, this concept being brought up of the election of grace is typified or is symbolized by Esther finding grace in everyone's eyes and ultimately finding grace in the king's eyes, right? She found favor and grace in king Ezra's eyes, which she then becomes made queen and she becomes made the wife. Verse number seven, what then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded. It's a very important verse to understand that every time you see the word elect, it doesn't automatically mean it's talking about the physical nation of Israel. In fact, more often it's not talking just about the physical, it's talking about the spiritual nation, the spiritual people of God. Now, there are going to be times in context where you're going to see the election referring to the physical seed. I believe that, but you need to take it all in context and this verse very clearly can show you and demonstrate that there is absolutely a difference depending on the context of what it's talking about because it's mentioning Israel did not obtain and the election hath obtained it. They can't be both the same thing. In this context, Israel cannot be the election because you can't obtain it and not obtain it at the same time, right? I mean, that'd be foolishness. Verse number eight, according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back all way. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall, God forbid, but rather through their fall, salvation has come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. And again, we're going to see in this story, you know, the fall of Vashti allowed for Esther to become queen. And Esther, the Jew, being queen, is provokes, you know, ultimately is to provoke other people jealousy. Haman is provoked to jealousy by Mordecai and then is going to bring wrath against the election, against those who have received grace in the king's eyes. Verse number 12, now if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness? For I speak to you Gentiles and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office, if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree were graft in among them, and with them partake us of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branch is broken off, that I might be graft in. Well, because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he also spare not thee. So any nation who's not going to bring forth the fruits thereof cannot just stand like confident that God's never going to take you away either. If he took away, you know, the first people, the nation of Israel that he chose out of the world to have his name there, and then takes them away and decides to use, you know, give that unto a nation, bring forth the fruits thereof, whatever nation that may be, you can't just assume that's always going to be a place. You know, the United States of America has been a lighthouse of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is, you know, throughout history of the existence of the United States, you know, there has been great missionary work done, there has been great revival, there's been great preaching, and great standing on the truth of God, but you can't just assume, well, we're always going to be, you know, God's nation. No. You can't just say, well, just because we're here, look, you need to be bringing forth the fruits thereof, because guess what he's going to do if you're not? Look for someone else. He did it to the physical seed, because the physical seed didn't matter, it doesn't matter. He's looking for the spiritual. Now, obviously, this can be a very complicated doctrine, but what we see in Esther 2 is a picture, right? So, you can't just, not every single detail is going to apply in a picture, and just realize that it doesn't discount the parable or the story and the truth that you can learn from it, just because not every single angle is going to work, right? Like, so what are you saying then? Is Vashti going to become queen again if she starts, you know, respecting the king? No, that's not, just because that doesn't happen doesn't mean, you know, that's just one part of the truth that you're not going to gain from the story, right? And that's why we don't get our doctrine just from stories, because they don't fit perfectly. Just like people when you try to explain salvation being a free gift, right? You're going to say, hey, well, if someone gives you a free gift, it's yours, right? It's yours forever. Yeah, but I could give it back. Okay, you know what? Yeah, you could, right? There's always things that you might be able to do, but for the analogy's purpose, that's not why it was brought up. The whole point is that it's free, and you don't pay for it, and it's given, and it's something that belongs to you or whatever else. It only goes so far, right? Everything, all analogies, all representations, all pictures of the truth will have a limit as to their effectiveness or their containing the truth of a subject, right? So obviously, just be aware of that. Let's go back to Esther chapter 2. We're going to wrap things up. So Ahasuerus makes his decision. Esther finds favor in his eyes, and she becomes a queen. Verse number 18 says, then the king made a great feast unto all his princes and his servants, even Esther's feast. And he made a release to the provinces and gave gifts according to the state of the king. So obviously, it's a very happy time, and he's kind of throwing another feast and just blessing people here with giving gifts. And the release to the provinces, I assume, is probably something like maybe a tax forgiveness thing where you don't have to pay, you know, because he's kind of like releasing them of something. So he's giving this release to the provinces. Maybe he's making it a kingdom-wide holiday or something, or you don't have to go to work, whatever it is, some type of release according to the state of the king. Verse 19 says, and when the virgins were gathered together the second time, then Mordecai sat in the king's gate. And this is, again, also, you know, Ahasuerus is not the shining example, because you go, wait a minute, why are virgins being gathered the second time? They don't need to be. He already found his queen, right? But what we see is that the king kind of likes his lifestyle of having these virgins brought to him. And as we go through the story, you're going to see like, hey, look, I can't even go in unto the king. I can't, unless he calls me. Remember, that was the rule for the concubines is that, nope, you don't get to see him again unless he wants to see you, then he calls you and sees you. Well, that's obviously the way that Esther's treated as well, even though she's his wife. That he, she just, hey, you don't come by me at all unless I call you. Which, he's not the shining example of a good husband, okay? And if he's bringing virgins forth the second time, what's the purpose? Because he's a wicked guy and he's doing wicked things, okay? Verse number 20 says, Esther had not yet showed her kindred nor her people as Mordecai had charged her, for Esther did the commandment of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him. And I think this is a good attribute of Esther, right? That she's being very obedient to someone who was acting as a parent and things like that. But at the same time, after she's made queen and becomes, you know, under the authority of her husband, which, you know, the way that the Bible teaches is that, you know, once you get married, you leave father and mother. That authority structure has changed because now the husband is in charge, no, dad's no longer in charge of his daughter when she gets married. That's it. Now she has a new authority structure in the home and ought to be following that. And in fact, you know, this is actually a cause for problems in young married couples' marriages. Because you've got these influences still from mom and dad, sometimes on both sides where, you know, they're telling their children to do something that's going to go against what the authority structure is in the home. And that is not helpful. And as godly parents, especially as children, you know, once you've raised them, you need to rely on the raising that you did for them. And once you give your blessing, especially of a daughter being given away for a man to marry, and this is, I'm not going to get into this, especially for sake of time. I full well believe that the daughters are living at home with dad. Dad has the authority in the house because the Bible says in Deuteronomy, I think it's, I forget exactly the chapter now, where it goes over the husband and father of the house, right, has the authority to nullify vows made by his wife as well as by his daughters. Okay, he has that authority to be able to say, no. So if your wife says something, makes a vow unto God, you say this is between me and God, and the husband hears that vow, he could say, no, you're not going to keep that vow. That vow doesn't stand. And that is the most personal thing maybe between, you know, a woman and God. But if you have a husband that has, God has given the husband that authority to be able to do that. And God has given that authority over the daughters as well for the fathers to be able to make that decision and say, no, I'm not going to give my blessing. I'm not going to allow that oath to stand. And when you get married, what are you doing? You're giving an oath. And this is why, you know, a lot of people have no clue why the traditions exist the way they are, because we live in such a weird perverted culture that has zero regard for marriage anymore. I just heard today at work that there's, they're talking, some guys are talking about a TV show where it's, what did they say it's called? Married at First Sight? Has anyone heard of that? Married at First Sight. Don't know anything about it. This is what I heard. You know, because all these stupid reality TV shows, right, it's just garbage television just there to defile the mind and just, and just bring down anything which has any semblance of goodness into the gutter. Apparently on the show, you know, these contestants or these people who get on the show, they literally get married the first time they see each other. They don't know anything about each other and they just get married on the show. And then they're being recorded and filmed and everything. And I don't know the extent of it. I just, this is what I gathered from what I heard. But it's like, talk about no regard for marriage at all and people are just treating this as entertainment. Like, why would you even put that filth in front of your eyes that just destroys the sanctity of marriage by just treating it as like it's nothing? Because these people that are getting involved are just like, well if I don't like it, let's get a divorce. No regard at all for marriage as being, as having any meaning at all. What's the point? And this is now what the culture is embracing and entertaining themselves with. Oh, ha ha ha. You know what, I don't think that's funny. I don't think it's entertaining. I don't want to see the misery of others, you know, to try to make myself feel better. And I definitely don't want to see some show that's promoting all manner of wickedness and people just have no regard for marriage. I don't want that to impact or influence my thinking on marriage at all. And I don't think it should, you know, garbage like that shouldn't even be on the air. If we had a righteous society and people actually cared about these things, it wouldn't be because there wouldn't be anybody that would want to watch that junk. It should be repulsive. I could believe it because I know how depraved our society has become, but it's just like, what are they going to do next? Who knows? How did I even get off on that? So the husband being in charge, right, the vows. That's where it came from, from the vows. Being, you know, being the one responsible for giving away their daughter. And the whole purpose we have a loving father is because they care about their daughter, right? So daughters, this isn't, you know, meant to be some horrible punishment. It's actually someone who has wisdom and maturity and knows men and can, you know, probably spot through, you know, see through some people who are trying to just play a game and aren't, maybe aren't even really who they say they are, you know, or who they're presenting themselves to be to offer another guard of protection for you. That would be the goal and the purpose is that a man's going to understand and see and not be, you know, women could get, because it's easier for them to get swept off their feet by what men can say if they're real charming, right? But a guy isn't going to get swept off his feet, right? And they're going to be looking at some of the things that are going to be important for the care of their daughter. Because once she gets married, that's who's taking care of your child. And as a godly parent, you're going to have to then, once you give that release, that's, that's, you know, they're being under the authority of the husband now. So Ahasuerus is not a very good leader in any sense. And we're going to see that because he's letting other people make these decisions for him and stuff. He's having, you know, even his own wife, like, just is afraid to go in to see him, right? Because he's got that, that stupid weird rule, like, if you just come on to him and you're not being called, like, you could be put to death, unless he shows grace or whatever. But again, there's going to be a lot of good symbolism out of that, but the practicality of it and just the fact that it was existing was just weird and wrong. So we're going to garner the truth out of this, even though there's a lot of things that are messed up in the situation. So let's finish up this chapter. You know, Ahasuerus is not leading his wife well, and Esther is basically just following under instruction of Mordecai, which, hey, he's a good spiritual leader for her anyways. But, yeah, that's, I just kind of wanted to bring that up. Verse number 21, let's finish off the chapter's last three verses here. It says, In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthain and Tirish, of those which kept the door were wroth and sought to lay a hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen, and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out. Therefore they were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the Chronicles before the king. Now this is going to come into play a little bit later on in the story that's going to vindicate Mordecai, and, you know, we'll see that later. But basically, Mordecai hears about this plan, that these people were going to do harm to the king, and he reports it, and because he was able to bring it into Esther's ear, you know, the king was able to hear it so that he was, you know, physically saved from this harm, and these guys were put to death. And we'll go over that in a later chapter. But let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this chapter. I pray you please help us to understand all the great truths that we can learn from this book as a whole, and to be able to apply these truths properly and use other Scriptures and clear verses to be able to form our doctrine, and then be able to gain just maybe a little bit more insight and learn some more truths by seeing these stories and getting these applications. Dear Lord, pray that you please just illuminate us. Lord, bless our church. Help us to continue to grow and to reach people. God, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.